Modern network-based applications can rely on the transfer of large amounts of information. As applications become more complex, the variety and amount of information that can be transferred has greatly increased. Compounding this, newly available, interesting types of information can be dramatically larger in size than older, traditional types of information. For example, video, location and map imagery is much larger in size than traditional textual information.
Firms that operate software applications that supply vast amounts of requested information are always seeking to reduce costs and improve performance. Often, reducing costs by reducing the amount of information produced by software applications can have negative consequences. Increased system resource use, added complexity, and problems associated with supporting a broad variety of client applications can all occur when firms address the problems noted above.